Tag Archives: educational technology conference

Apple’s coding curriculum for schools has been expanded and updated recently to include a full spectrum of offerings for students in K-12 classrooms. It even includes the ability to code smart toys like Spheros and drones. So, if you have access to Apple devices in your school, you should definitely take a look at what this program can offer teachers and students. Here’s what you can expect.

The first speaker at the conference is Daniel Kim whose YouTube channel covers music, psychology, and education. He’s family for his annual pop danthologies.

Every year, his “Danthologies” go viral. In these mashups, he uses the best parts of the songs and discards everything else. Daniel talks about his own emotional experiences, where children are so used to getting immediate gratification that it pains them to be “bored” even for short periods of time. They are used to immediate rewards and resources. Technology in the classroom doesn’t mean that you will connect with your students. Modern schools with students hungry to learn restrict their access to resources. Students often have access to great materials at home or outside of the school that the tools available to them in educational environments. Daniel says it shouldn’t be this way. Instead, schools need to keep up! Some great thoughts about restrictive practices in education.

The main keynote speaker is Kevin Honeycutt. I’m so excited to finally see him speak in person! Looking at the stage, there’s half a dozen devices, a 3D printer, and even a guitar! Kevin talks about “kids today.” We don’t want to kill them with boredom!

Kevin says that teachers need to constantly shift. We aren’t multi-taskers, instead we’re fast switchers. He leads us through an exercise that demonstrates just how we are *not* multi-taskers! So as teachers, we have to be master switchers.

“What can we do to help manufacture confident creative minds?” We need to use our words. We need to blog, tweet, and share. As Kevin says, we need to tell our story “Stop being secret geniuses!!” We need to role model for kids. We can’t blame kids if they mess up. Kids are raising themselves on digital playgrounds and no one is on recess duty! But it’s not about technology, it’s about relationships. If you don’t do something meaningful with it, it’s just “stuff.” “Why will we do this?” Because hands on learners want to hold what they create in their own hands. Kids want to design iPhone cases not buy iPhone cases. It’s not about worksheets, it’s about what you create. Kids need to publish what they’re proud of because they are “publishing puberty!” Think about all of the mistakes they made in puberty… but they’re analogue! We need to role model for kids what good humans do with technology.

Everything that we do doesn’t need to be perfect. Perfect is the enemy of done! If you wait to be perfect, then you will never get started. Just start doing it and doing the work. You improve as you grow. If you apply in class, you can build relationships with your tools. “At any given moment a person can have a renaissance and they’re new again!”

Kevin tells us that school isn’t rehearsal, it’s real life. It’s the show. We need to use technology to connect to people. Build your own network on Twitter and other PLN tools. You need to model for your kids! Tap into your own passions, art, music, literature, science… what do you love? Create and share!